Burston is a village and former civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Burston is located 2.6 mi north-east of Diss and 16 mi south-west of Norwich. On 1 April 1935, the parish of Shimpling and Burston were merged to form Burston and Shimpling.

History

Burston's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for a settlement or farmstead built around a landslip. In the Domesday Book, Burston is recorded as a settlement of 41 households in the hundred of Diss. In 1086, the village was part of the estates of King William I and Robert Malet. The local pub, The Crown, dates back to the Seventeenth Century and still operates as a pub and restaurant. From 1914 to 1939, Burston was the scene of the longest strike in history when schoolteachers Tom and Annie Higdon went on strike in protest over unhygienic and inadequate schooling conditions for the local children. The children were instead invited to attend Burston Strike School which was built by public subscription in 1917, the patrons names are carved into bricks used to build the school where Leo Tolstoy's name is visible. In 1949, the School building was registered as an educational charity and is currently operated by a board of trustees as a museum, visitor centre, village amenity and educational archive. A rally to commemorate the strike has been organised on the first Sunday of September every year since 1984 by the Transport and General Workers' Union and its successor organisation, Unite the Union. On 10 July 1983, the new parish was renamed to "Burston and Shimpling". Other listed buildings within Burston include Manor Farmhouse (Sixteenth Century), Crown Farmhouse (Seventeenth Century), Red House (Seventeenth Century) and Valley Farmhouse (Seventeenth Century).

Geography

In 1931 the parish of Burston (prior to the merge) had a population of 279. This was the last time separate population statistics for Burston were collected in the census.

St. Mary's Church

Burston's parish church is dedicated to Saint Mary and dates from the Fifteenth Century, though the tower collapsed in 1753 and was never re-built. St. Mary's is located on the junction of Diss Road and Mill Road and has been Grade II listed since 1959. The church was restored in the Nineteenth Century and again in 2013 and today boasts a set of royal arms from the reign of King James I. Tom and Annie Higdon, leaders of the Burston Strike School, are buried side-by-side in the churchyard.

Amenities

Burston once had its own railway station, with services on the Great Eastern Main Line between Norwich and London Liverpool Street. The station closed in 1966.

Notable Residents

Governance

Burston is part of the electoral ward of Bressingham & Burston for local elections and is part of the district of South Norfolk. The village's national constituency is Waveney Valley which has been represented by the Green Party's Adrian Ramsay MP since 2024.

War memorial

Burston war memorial was unveiled in 2019 after a public subscription campaign and is a glass topped brick memorial on Church Green. the memorial lists the following names for the First World War: And: Frederick G. Bryant.